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Zimbabwe's hippos threatened by drought

18 April 1992

By
MARY COLE in
HARARE

Hippos and other wild animals are starving to death in southeast Zimbabwe
during the worst drought in living memory. Experts predict that 90 per cent
of the wild animals in the lowlands around the Gonarezhou National Park
will die as the dry season continues. For elephants and other species,this
could mean that genetic variants found in the area could be wiped out.

In the rainy season between December and April, the area normally receives
540 millimetres of rain. This year only 50 millimetres fell. The rest of
the year is dry. The country’s maize crop has been hit badly and in several
cities, riot police were called in when people queuing for food went on
the rampage. Meteorologists say the severe drought this year is linked to
the worst El Nino in the Pacific for a decade (This Week, 21 March).

Gonarezhou’s hippo population of 200 is at risk and 13 carcasses have
already been found. The toll will increase as the Department of National
Parks and Wild Life cull hippos, elephants and impala to ease pressure on
vegetation. Meat will be distributed to local villagers and the hides tanned.

Grazing animals are the first to be affected by drought, but browsers,
especially kudus, eland and elephants will be next. ‘In the 1983 drought,
80 per cent of game animals died,’ says wildlife manager Clem Coetsee. ‘Then
we had surface water, but now the surface water just is not there. Unless
it rains I don’t believe there are going to be any animals left in the low
veld (lowlands) by September.’

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There are still remnant pools dotted along the parched Lundi river in
the park, but there is no grass. Most hippos have left their pools in search
of grazing. Their normally rounded backs now have spines sticking out like
boat hulls, and activity is minimal. One desperate hippo cow and her calf
walked across the scorched riverbed at midday, to certain death. Hippos
cannot tolerate the sun: their skin blisters and cracks, they dehydrate
and die.

Local conservationists and game ranchers are feeding some hippos with
cane tops from a failed harvest, but fodder will soon run out. Last year
there were 24 000 cattle in the lowveld, now they are down to 9000. Many
former cattle ranchers in the area, who have switched to more lucrative
game ranching, are trying to save their animals by herding them into pens
using an air force helicopter. The cost of this, added to that of feeding
the animals for the rest of the year, could be prohibitive.

Penny Havnar, a local conservationist, is concerned that hippos are
less valuable to ranchers. ‘They are going to save useful species first,’
she says.

Donald Rule, the manager of a crocodile farm, is having problems keeping
his 15 000 crocodiles alive. He has already slaughtered 3000. ‘The drought
can only get worse,’ he says. ‘We have either got to find water or lose
all the crocodiles.’

Zebras have been transported to ranches in the north where more rain
has fallen. But cloven-hoofed animals such as buffaloes and kudus must stay
put or go through two months’ quarantine because they carry foot-and-mouth
disease. Gonarezhou is capable of sustaining 4000 elephants, but officials
say the numbers need to be reduced to save the damaged vegetation.

It is important to keep a breeding nucleus of each species alive, says
Rowan Martin, deputy director of National Parks and Wild Life. ‘ In Gonarezhou,
the elephants tend to have small bodies and big tusks,’ he says. ‘Blood
samples have been taken which show there has been no mixing of Gonarezhou
elephants and elephants in the west in Hwange National Park for several
hundred years. They are totally different genetic stock.’